Loud And Clear
by Wicked R
Summary: playground rivalry is becoming dangerous for Phoebe's son


Title: Loud And Clear  
Author: Wicked R

Disclaimers: most characters and the universe belongs to the WB.  
Rating: G.  
Genre: romance/futurefic.  
Summary/Set: Playground rivalry is becoming a dangerous activity for  
Phoebe's son.  
Pairing: Piper/Leo, Cole/Phoebe, Kyle/Paige.  
Note: one of the occurrences in this fic is very similar to an idea  
in one of Charmed Snow's fics, but I only realised that after I  
finished this.

Phoebe arrived home to the manor to find her husband Kevin ironing  
his shirts in preparation for the following week at work as the  
personal assistant of the Dr. Louis Bass at Perigee Institution for  
the research into sex offending. The way the not too tall, teddy bear  
like man, stroked the material to get rid of some creases before he  
put the hot iron on top of it, having the habit of performing the  
chore naked on his top half to compensate for the heat and show his  
well muscled and slightly hairy chest in the process always made her  
smile at how cute the very manly guy was doing a traditionally female  
house work. She launched her bag to land on the bed, while she  
strolled towards Kevin to give him a spontaneous snuggle and kiss.

The middle aged fellow psychologist she met when she enrolled to  
complete her PhD wasn't overly surprised by her actions, for sharing  
these simple, pleasant interactions consisting of everyday kinda  
things such as walking around the block after dinner, sharing  
experiences while squeezing a hand across dinner had been quite  
characteristical of their marriage, especially if they had an  
argument a few days before. Both maturely keen on the maintenance of  
the relationship for different reasons, they always made sure to make  
love several time after a more serious argument to counteract for it.  
Not that they had very many disagreements nowadays that they knew  
each other's habits and reactions to almost anything, having set  
limits of where they gave in to the wishes of one or the other, as it  
was to be expected after five years of marriage. Apart from those  
grumpy days that could happen to anyone, there was nothing wrong with  
this couple, Phoebe could discuss her feelings with him, they took  
time away from everything else especially to talk to each other, and  
that mostly because they enjoyed it and not because they should,  
making sure regualarly that they had expressed their love and respect  
for one another. Kevin, being a few years older than Phoebe had  
showed her a more companionate love where intimacy and sense of  
commitment were strong, as opposed to the mainly romantic love she  
was used to before, where her passion and intimacy was high, but she  
didn't share enough experiences with her former partners to develop a  
strong sense of commitment to them. Having his own interests and  
hobbies, the human didn't suffocate her with his caring either,  
giving way to her involvement with magic. He got a bit of a shock at  
first when he realised that there was another demonic world he didn't  
know about before, but ultimately he took it the same way as most  
humans do. The less he knew about it all, the better. As if somehow  
he could deny their existence by this behaviour.

Demons reacted to him a very similar way to his reaction to them, he  
was of no interest to them and Phoebe could count on one hand the  
number of times they had to even as much as protect him. She  
approximated it with Victor's formal point of view, his denial  
reminding her of how she was told her father was misunderstanding the  
situation during her early years. Her whitelighter being Paige, there  
was no risk there for Kevin, but her father didn't have to deal with  
his little daughters having special abilities, while her two year old  
son, Philip's powers were no bound.

The little boy had already possessed a feel for not practising  
levitating objects while his dad was around, there was plenty of  
occasion to mess around with magic while he was with his older  
cousins Wyatt and Christopher, and Paige's three year old girl, Pat.

It was the simultaneous voice of Phil shouting and Pat's cry that  
broke Phoebe's half serious foreplay, "I better go and see," she  
retied the ribbon on the top of her blouse and rushed down the stairs  
to the sunroom, that nowadays operated more like an in house crèche.

Paige had already orbed there, and she was taking Pat into her arms  
to soothe her wailing, "Pat? What's wrong? Are you ok?" The blondie  
locks shook her head, so her mother continued, "does it hurt  
anywhere?"

"Here," sobbed the little girl, indicating her arm.

To the close look, there were red marks on it, but not too angry.  
Paige cuddled her up, "it's okay. It will heal. What happened,  
darling?" The little whitelighter pointed to her younger cousin and  
her mother guessed, "was it Phil?"

"Yes."

"Levitating things into you again?" It was one of the terrible twos'  
favourite pastime.

"No."

"No? Did he hit you? Come on sweetie, you are the older one."

"No."

"What then?"

"He did something naughty."

"I can see that. But what was it, honey?"

"It was scary," Pat cried, burying herself into her mother's  
shoulders, who wasn't able to force one more word out of her.

Phoebe made a displeased face looking at her son, who was being in  
the huff himself, only peeping up at his mother to see her reaction.

"Come here," Phoebe commanded him in her most kid on angry voice,  
taking him by hand to the dining room, where she sat down with the  
boy standing in front of her, "what did you do? You can show mummy. I  
told you that it's dangerous to levitate some things cause they can  
hurt people when you let go and they fall. Let me see what you did."

Phil raised his hand innocently, and Phoebe could see the  
concentration on his face as he squeezed his palm. When he opened it,  
there was a ping pong size fire ball on it, that disappeared the way  
it came to life when he clapped his hands together. He smiled,  
expecting his mother to be impressed and appreciate what he could do.

Right enough, Phoebe was more than impressed. She was so taken aback,  
she couldn't move or speak for several seconds, making the child call  
out for her. When she got herself together, she hugged him simply,  
then stood up to go and face her husband. She will deal later with  
explaining Phil what to do wit his new power. She switched on the  
telly to find one of Phil's favourite cartoons and left him to hear  
the only explanation that was feasible from Kevin's own mouth, that  
he was a demon after all those years and all those pretences of him  
not even knowing of the underworld's existence, "Phil just conjured  
up a fire ball," she started with watery eyes, looking to the man  
that went back to the ironing.

"You're joking, right?" Kevin said nonchalantly, not even taking his  
eyes off his white shirt.

"What do you want from us?" Phoebe continued in a cold voice, "don't  
tell me you have enough information about us now to finish us off,  
but you happened to fall in love with me."

Kevin looked up now, seemingly interested, "don't tell me someone  
used some stupid spell or potion on you that makes you insane. Piper!"

"Yeah, yeah, call Piper, she'll blow you up," Phoebe threatened.

"What?" Piper put her head into the room.

"Blow him up!" Phoebe ordered her.

"What?" Piper repeated in a confused voice.

"If he is human, you can't harm him. If he is demonic, he will be  
vanquished."

"You think he got possessed?" Piper guessed, "we should probably use  
some other method if you want her husband back."

"Just do it! Before he turns on us!"

"Sorry Kevin," Piper complied. It was best to sort potentially  
demonic things out as soon as it was possible. Besides, she still had  
to look at Wyatt's home work. To her complete and utter shock, her  
brother in law disintegrated, but his particles didn't spread all  
over the room, but came together once more to take their original  
form and Cole stood in front of them, naked on top as he had been  
before.

"Where is Kevin?" Phoebe asked angrily.

"I am Kevin."

"What did you do with him? How long has it been you?"

"All the time Phoebe. Remember, I'm a shapeshifter now."

"No, that can't be," her legs became weak, making Piper reach out for  
her and lead her to the bed to sit down.

"I had to show you we could have a successful relationship."

"Get out!" Phoebe stood up and levitated to kick him in the face.

Cole licked his own blood away from his top lip, the assail leaving  
no mark on him after the initial blood flow was wiped away. He  
must've used illusions when he was seemingly harmed previously, he  
even used the same tricks to make them believe he was healed by a  
whitelighter once, "I know your angry," he started once more, "but we  
did live together happily for quite a long time. It has to count for  
something."

"I lived with an illusion!" Phoebe lifted her arms up in frustration,  
and squeezed her eyes shot for a second, "oh, no," she stormed out  
the room to ask Paige to orb her somewhere to be alone for a while.

"You could've helped us with some demons we had difficulties  
vanquishing," Piper reproached Cole in the kitchen several hours  
later after the family committee meeting accepted his presence until  
Phoebe came back and decided upon his fate.

"Apart from giving away my cover, that would've attracted another  
bunch of demons who want my head. There's still quite a high price on  
it, not to mention the honour of being able to vanquish me, even if  
temporarily. My popularity is on the rising," Cole said as if he was  
mocking himself.

"Are you actually popular anywhere?" Leo said, in all factuality  
taking pity on one of the most powerful demons of all times. The ex  
whitelighter couldn't believe how he comforted himself with  
readjusting himself to normal human life regularly going out for a  
few drinks with his best pal, Kev when he felt bad about not being  
able to help the girls anymore. In fact, Cole had the power, but as  
opposed to him, the demon didn't have the heart of his chosen one, at  
least not for a long time at any point.

"Life just never seems fair," Kyle added. His brother in law, who  
posed as a psychologist has often helped him with professional advice  
regarding his charges. Stubborn headed the young whitelighter was,  
only a very sophisticated person could direct his actions and still  
remain friends with him.

"Whatever Phoebe decides, I would like to stay incognito if you don't  
mind," Cole stuck to discussing practical matters just now to avoid  
thinking about the heartache Phoebe will most certainly cause him  
again. He also had his son on his lap, cuddling him tight in fear  
Phoebe will want to forbid him from seeing his son as well.

Phil smiled, not at all sure of what all the commotion was about. He  
himself found it quite funny, laughing in hysterics sometimes as his  
father shapeshifted into this new person, back, and into the new  
person again.

"There's one thing I really wanna know," Phoebe said as she was orbed  
back by Paige, "how can you consistently behave like a nice person?  
Who are you? What's the real Cole like?"

"Both of what you have seen. If we stayed together, when we have  
first married, I think our relationship would be very similar to what  
we actually had when I was playing Kevin. I know that we were lacking  
some ardour, but I couldn't risk showing strong emotions towards you,  
cause that was what you disliked so much when I was trying to get you  
back. I could should you how it would really be, but it takes time  
and I'm not sure you are willing to give me any."

"You don't possess the power of mind reading do you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know who I replaced you with in my mind most of the time we made  
love? Sounds quite funny now. I substituted you with you."

"Does that mean you still want me?"

"Your deceit was probably the biggest you ever did on me. But I can  
see that I didn't give you enough chance to prove yourself before.  
Just one thing Cole. To the public eye, you should remain Kevin, but  
could you be Cole in bed?"

The End.


End file.
